Pathology (2008)

A medical student, Teddy (Heroes' Milo Ventimiglia) is accepted onto the nations leading forensic pathology program.

He is quickly inducted into a secret society of some of the class' leading students; a society who exist to test their skills with a game.

The game is simple; each member, in turn, tries to create the perfect, untraceable, murder; Then they put it into practice, and the other players must try to determine a cause of death. 

---

Psycho (1960)

---

Desperate to get some cash together so she can finally be with her fiancé, secretary Marion Crane makes off with €40,000 of her companies money.
Taking back roads to avoid the police, she winds up at a run-down and near deserted motel, run by Norman Bates a quiet, slightly odd, man who lives under the thumb of his supposedly feeble mother.
Norman takes an instant shine to Marion; but mother senses trouble... Women always bring trouble...

---

Berevement (2010)

Minersville, Pennsylvania, 1989; Martin Bristol, a young boy with Congenital Analgesia (a condition which prevents him feeling pain) is kidnapped from outside his home by psychotic maniac, Graham. For the next 5 years, Martin is forced to help Graham around the house, and watch as he tortures and kills women he kidnaps and brings back to the run-down meat packing plant he calls home.
In 1994, Following the death of her parents, Alison moves in with her overprotective Uncle and his family in Minersville. While out running, she becomes curious when she sees the now 11 year old Martin watching her from the derelict building.

---

247°F (2011)

4 freinds, go to stay in a luxury cabin, owned and built by one of their uncles.
Before heading to a nearby festive, the decide to use the cabin's sauna, but the door jams, and the controls are on the outside. With the uncle out for the night, water running low, and the temperature rising, it's up to the group to find a way to survive.

Back in Shocktober 2010 (wow, my reviews were short then!) I reviewed "Frozen" comparing it to Adrift, with a ski lift instead of water, so it seems odd that my first thought on this movie was "so, they've made 'Frozen' with heat instead of cold!", but, that really does seem to be the formula here.

What the movie gets right, is having an array of things the group can try, compared to Frozen's two options of 'wait' or 'jump'. This is exploited to the fullest by having someone intelligent in the mix - the main guy weighs up the pros and cons of every plan the group can think of.

Frankly, the lack of characterisation killed this one for me; in a movie spent mostly in one place, with a small group of people, those people are everything... Here, I just didn't feel their plight.

FULL REVIEW EXCLUSIVELY ON THE CINEPHILAICS HERE

---

Disclaimer:
If you look through the archives, you'll see that I've been using "Bought from Poundland" as a tag since at least 2011.

At the end of October 2013 I decided that all of my 2014 movies would be purchased from Poundland, and began buying up horror movies, to ensure I would have enough come October 2014.

In March 2014 I took a part time job at Poundland.

In accordance with the companies social media policy, in September 2014 I contacted Poundland's social media team to check that I would be okay to carry on with my plan to use the "bought from Poundland" tag.

I have been given the go-ahead on condition that I make the following clear:

All the reviews on this blog are entirely the opinion of Will Tingle, the reviews are not endorsed by Poundland in any way and (as should be obvious from some of the more scathing ones) are certainly not reviews I have been paid to write.

In short: The views expressed in this blog are mine alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Poundland or it's owners, shareholders, or  management.

Cry_Wolf (2005)

On Owen's first day at his post boarding school, he is immediately accepted by his new room-mate's clique.
When a dead girl shows up in the woods around the school, the group decide it would be funny to convince everyone that a serial killer is on the loose, and so they send an anonymous email about  a made-up serial killer "The Wolf" who, they claim, strikes boarding schools, killing a list of people in a specific order, starting with a townie (someone who doesn't go to the school) and then, come the full moon, different types of student.
Except, since sending the email, the kids start getting stalked by someone matching The Wolf's description... is it one of the group playing a joke? Has whoever killed the girl in the woods hear about the email and not taken to it kindly? or is it something else all together?
All we know for sure, is that next week is Halloween... and a full moon!

---

Stuck (2002)

On her way home from a club, care-worker Brandy hits a homeless man who stepped out in front of her car.
Unable to afford a DUI charge, she panics and flees the scene, with the man still stuck in her wind-shield.
After putting the car away in her garage the man, still in place, wakes up.
In too deep to simply call for help, she is left trying to find a way to deal with the injured man.

---

Rage (2010)

A FULLER VERSION OF THIS REVIEW IS ALSO POSTED AT A BLOG I CONTRIBUTE TO YEAR-ROUND.

Head to Horror Movie A Week to see what my friend Lisa and I think of the 52 movies we review each and every year.

---

While parking his car, Dennis inadvertently cuts up a biker. It proves to be a far bigger mistake than he could have guessed.
Starting with childish baiting, and working his way up, the baker spends the day stalking and terrorising Dennis from behind his tinted visor, taking a simple disagreement way beyond road rage, and turning it into a terrifying ordeal.

---

Madison County (2011)

---

As part of a college project, James arranges an interview with author David Randle. Randell's book is about Damien Ewell, who the author claims is Americas biggest untraced serial killer, having killed at least 30 people over the last decade.
Along with 4 freinds, James travels to Madison County, Upon arriving at the town the locals, clearly not keen on outsiders, tell them that Damien is fictional, and that David Randle left the area years ago.
Determined not to waste the trip, the teens go searching for Randle, but are picked off one by one, by a man wearing a pig mask.

---

Do You Like My Basement? (2012) (aka "The Basement")

Stanley Farmer fancies himself a film-maker, and dreams of making a horror movie about people spending the night in a basement in order to win a cash prize. During the course of the night, the maniac running the competition will subject his 'guests' to torture.
After acquiring a shooting location, Stanly puts out a casting call. Little do the applicants know that Stanly will be making his film the authentic way, and by the time they turn up for audition, they've already been cast...

---

Maniac (2012)

By day, Frank (Elijah Wood) runs his own business restoring mannequins; by night he murders women, taking their scalps to adorn his personal collection.
When Frank meets photographer Anne, she becomes the latest object of his obsession.

---

The Cellar Door (2007)

When Rudy goes to her friends house for a 'girls night in' they both end up passing out drunk.
She wakes up in a wooden crate, in a basement, as the prisoner of a socially awkward man, named Herman.
All Herman wants to do is keep her happy in her box, but sometimes she says mean things to Herman, or won't co-operate with him, and when she upsets Herman, she makes him do bad things...

---

The movies prologue sees Herman's previous obsession escaping, and her subsequent murder. I get that they wanted to give the movie a dramatic lead-in but later, when Rudy realises she is not the first woman that Herman has 'kept', it's a big thing for her, and it's lacking some of its punch for us as we already know. Another small thing is that his previous victim was blonde, whereas Rudy is a redhead... To me, I'd have liked to have seen Herman always kidnap a similar looking woman, but again, it's a minor gripe. 

Some Guy Who Kills People (2011)

Years ago, Ken Boyd was trapped and tortured by the high school basketball team, leaving him emotionally (and physically) scarred.
Fresh out of the loony bin and working in an ice-cream parlour, Ken seems to be getting his life in order, and all is going well, until he is sent to one of the team member's birthday party to serve ice-cream, and the ex-jock mocks his work-uniform (a giant ice-cream cone).
The next day, the bully turns up dead; and he's not the last.
One by one, the people who tormented Ken get brutally slaughtered, to complicate things further, Ken's 11 year old daughter shows up.
Can Ken find his place in the world, can he be a dad, or is he just Some Guy Who Kills People?

---

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane. (2006)

Mandy Lane is the most sought after, and most unobtainable, girl in school. At a pool party, her best friend Emmet, apparently board with seeing the male populous of his school hit on his friend, convinces one drunken would-be suitor to go to extreme measures to try and impress Mandy... With tragic consequences.
9 months later, Mandy and Emmet's friendship is utterly distorted, and Emmet is more of an outcast than ever, while Mandy maintains her status as the ultimate "prize".
A student organises a vacation at his fathers ranch for himself and 5 friends (including Mandy, who he believes he can be the one to seduce) but when they arrive, it gradually becomes apparent that they have been followed by a madman, determined to take them all down one-at-a-time. 

---

I Spit On Your Grave (2010 Remake)

Jennifer Hill rents a remote cabin near a lake, in order to get some solitude while she writes a novel.
On her way into town, she attracts the attention of the town lowlife; 3 guys who work at the gas station.
One night, liquored up in the woods, the men decide that Jennifer is a "Stuck up City Bitch" who is "Desperate for it"; they decide that she needs to be "taught a lesson" and so they take their retarded friend Matthew, who has met Jennifer and has a bit of a thing for her, around to her cabin, where they rape, beat and humiliate her, then leave her for dead.
A month later, Jenifer returns; she has been keeping herself alive in the woods and has occupied her mind with one thought: Revenge!

---

Last House on the left (2009 Remake)

While staying in her family's summer house, Mari goes to meet her friend, Paige, in town, together they go back to a motel with Justin, a boy they just met, to smoke some weed.
Unfortunately Justin's father, Krugg, along with his brother and girlfriend (who just hijacked the police transport vehicle that was taking Krugg to prison)  return to the motel earlier than expected.
The gang torture the girls, rape them and leave them for dead, then stranded by a storm in the middle of nowhere, go to the nearest house they can find to seek shelter.
Little do the gang know, the house is Mari's parent's summer house... and when they work out what has happened to their daughter, and who is responsible they do what any good parents would... they take justice into their own hands.

Them (Ils)

A couple are attacked in their own home by a gang of youths in hoodies.

---

Frozen

When 3 friends bribe their way onto a ski-lift for one last run before the slope closes for the week, a simple mis-communication leads to them getting stranded hundreds of feet in the air, in sub-zero temperatures.

If you think this sounds like "Adrift" only in a ski-lift instead of in the water, you'd be right - so whether or not you enjoy this at all depends on your opinion of that film - both are hard to review (or even write about - I'm not sure these things qualify as 'reviews' in any real sense) as the only thing you can say without spoilers is "they keep trying to find ways to escape".

Eden Lake

In 2009, I didn't review movies, so much as briefly recomend a few via my Facebook account, This was one of them...


Okay, so strictly speaking, 'Eden Lake' is a thriller, not a horror - But I'm willing to bend the rules a little here, as the film is, without question, designed to invoke terror in the viewer.

Uncomfortable, if not downright unpleasant to watch, 'Eden Lake' is by no means a "fun" movie. The plot is a simple one - a couple go out to an idyllic spot near a reservoir for a camping trick, only to find that the part of the beach they have chosen is a favourite hangout of a bunch of ASBO kids. Rather than just find a new spot of beach, the couple decide to stand their ground and stand up to the hoodies - who retaliate with horrific and brutal consequences.